


Traveling Soldier

by kostovak



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1970s, M/M, SOLDIER - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-02
Updated: 2013-08-02
Packaged: 2017-12-22 04:10:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kostovak/pseuds/kostovak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two days passed eighteen, Derek is waiting for his bus to take him to army camp, Stiles is a waiter at a diner.  1960s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this was going to be a oneshot, but I am starting to like the idea more and more. I credit the song: Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks for inspiration and a title. Oh and if anyone would Beta this for me it would be great! I am really bad at editing.

Stiles gently laid down the plate containing the house special careful not to spill the coffee on the tray he was holding in his other hand. 

“Is that all for now?” he asked the customer, while staring at the clock cursing the fact that he still had 3 more hours left on his shift. 

“Yes thank you.” said the man sitting at the table. Stiles’ eyes shifted from the clock toward the direction in which the voice had come from. A man, clothed in green, his beret sitting on the table. A soldier. 

“Well just tell me if you need anything else.” Stiles said curtly, smiling, then turning to take the coffees from his tray to their table.

\---

Derek sat at the table eating his food. For the past month all he had been able to think about was his impending deployment, and now that the day had arrived, and all he could think about was the waiter who had just brought him his breakfast. 

He sat in the diner for an hour. He had finished his food in under 20 minutes but for the remainder of the time he pretended to read a book while secretly watching his waiter go from table to table taking orders and bringing them out. It took Derek those extra 40 minutes to finally buck up and ask the waiter what he had been dying to know.

“Can I get you anything else?” asked the waiter.

“Um...” Derek started. He had thought he was ready, brave, right now the war seemed a lot less scary than talking to this guy.

“Well? Spit it out! I don’t have all day ya know.” The waiter said with a wink.

“I was just wondering what your name was?” Derek gulped, “And, what time you get off?”

“Stiles, and in an hour. Why? Gonna wait around for little ol’ me?” said Stiles.

“Well, my bus doesn’t come until 5:30, so I have time to kill...” 

“I’ll see you directly out front of this here diner in... well..” Stiles started to mumble random things, while counting on his fingers, “Who am I kidding I have nothing to do after work.”

“So out-front in an hour?”

“If you’re there, I’ll be.”

\---

Stiles clocked out at exactly 11 am, punching his card in the dumb little hole puncher, grabbing his clothes from the closet, and bee lining to the bathroom to get changed out of his dumb work uniform. 

When he emerged from the diner he put his hand up to his forehead to shield his eyes from the bright light cast from the sun. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to see the man, who he had not even gotten the name of, standing underneath the green oak tree across the road. He was tall, and handsome, and seemed normal. Stiles crossed the road, dirt kicking up in his wake, and joined the mystery man under the tree.

“So, are you voluntary or draft?” Stiles said as soon as he reached the man, regretting opening his mouth as soon as it happened.

“Draft.” the man answered, but before Stiles could interrupt he started again, “So I see you really like to get down to the point.”

“I don’t believe in beating around the bush.” Stiles retorted with a sly smile. 

“You haven’t even asked what my name is.”

“Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll just call you... John! or Harry!”

“Go ahead, but if you call me either of those names I won’t even acknowledge your existence.”

The man didn’t seem as shy or nervous now, he seemed a lot more comfortable.

“Okay so I see how it is. Maybe it turns out I do have other things to do today afterall.” Stiles turned around beginning to step away.

“Okay! Okay! It’s Derek, my name is Derek. Happy?”

“I’m an optimist so I always try to see myself as happy.”

\---

They had walked all the way down the road to the river pier about three miles from the diner. Talking about their lives and other random stuff. Derek learned that Stiles was 17, but attending college during the school year, he worked at the diner to pay for tuition. Stiles talked a lot. Derek liked that. He didn’t feel the need to fill the silence, because there never was any. As soon as Derek made a statement or asked a question Stiles would just start talking. 

When they reached the pier Stiles started taking off his shoes, “What are you doing?” Derek asked.

“Going swimming. You know? That thing when you submerge yourself in water for pleasure?” Stiles replied while he slipped his socks off. Stiles stripped down to his boxers then ran down the pier and dove into the water, surfacing a few yards away from where his splash had been. “Aren’t you coming?” Stiles said splashing some water.

“I don’t have a bathing suit!”

“So?” Stiles hand rose out of the water revealing the pair of underwear he had been wearing were no longer on his body but in his hand. “C’mon! No one ever comes around here! I’ll turn around! I won’t look! I promise!” As he said this he turned his body around and looked out across the water to the river bank on the other side. 

Stiles was looking out to the water for what felt like half a minute when he heard the running footsteps on the pier and then a SPLASH!. Derek surfaced right next to him. 

“See? Not so bad?” Stiles said laughing and splashing.

“It feels great!” Derek said this, then filled his mouth with river water and sprayed it at Stiles who in turn did it to him.

\---

The walk back to the diner was a lot shorter than the walk to the pier. At least to Derek it felt like it. Its was 5:25 when they reached the spot where Derek was going to get picked up. 

“I had a lot of fun today,” Derek started.

“Me too!”

“Would... Would it be too weird if I gave you my information so you could write me?”

“No! That would be awesome.”

They were incredibly close. Derek didn’t even know when they had gotten this close to each other. Their face inches apart. Their heads leaning in. 

“Do you hear that?” Stiles turned his head so fast he was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. Derek turned his head too. Coming down the road was the bus. Following it was a cloud of dust tall enough to cover the diner. The bus pulled in a minute later.

“I guess this is goodbye?” Stiles said.

“I guess so. Promise you’ll write?” Derek said as he handed Stiles his information.

“Promise.” Stiles took a step back as Derek boarded the bus.

Stiles smiled and waved as the bus pulled away. It wasn’t until the bus was out of sight that he opened the paper that Derek had given him. Written in a scribble was Derek’s full name and his contact information. Stiles quickly pocketed it to make sure he wouldn’t lose it. He had promised to write after all.


	2. Stiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles gets home after the day spent with Derek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a short chapter, but it is setting stuff up for subsequent chapters, and also setting up a format. Please rate and review and what not.

The walk home was a long one. It was a four mile walk down the road that the diner was on, and then a half mile from that point to Stiles’s house. So many thoughts were going through his head and he couldn’t understand any of them. He just wanted to go home and go to sleep. Sleep always made things better.

He made his way up the old wood steps to the front door, wiping the sweat from his upper lip that tended to accumulate there in the hot South Carolina sun.

“Stiles is that you?” a voice called from the kitchen.

“Yeah ma!”

“How was work?” the voice sounded distracted, as usual. Stiles’s mother always seemed to be cooking, even if they only ate meals three times a day, his mother could always be found slaving over the stove. 

“Dad working tonight?”

“Late. Go wash up and be down for dinner in five minutes.”

\---

It was 2 am. Stiles had been laying in his bed trying to sleep since 11. He had to be up in two hours so what was even the point of sleeping. He sat up, pulled the thin threadbare sheet off of his body, and reached over to turn his desk light on.

Stiles was just staring at the desk, zoning out, when he saw his shirt from the day was laying over his chair. The shirt that had a pocket that contained a very important piece of paper.

Suddenly awake and fully charged with energy, Stiles got up and sat at his desk, pulling open the piece of paper Derek had given him earlier. He studied it for two minutes. Just looking at it, making sure it was real. He then scrambled to get a pen and paper out of a drawer in the desk and set to writing a letter.

\--

Letter 1

Dear Derek,

I don’t even know how to start this... Do I say hi? What do I say? What do you want me to say? How is the weather? Are you tired of wearing green yet? How many people are in your bunk? Do you sleep in a bunk or a tent? I hope you are having some kind of fun.

Sincerely,

Stiles

\---

Stiles looked at the letter, then cursed the brevity of it. While he had been lying in bed there had been so many things he would have like to have written down, but now that the time to actually write them down had come, Stiles was out of words. And Stiles was never out of words.

After sealing, addressing, and stamping the letter, Stiles realized that he wouldn’t be able to get it to the post office for four days or so. His truck was being borrowed by their neighbors for the time being, which was why he had to make that long walk to work. 

Four days will just have to do. Stiles thought to himself, turning his light off and getting back into bed to make an attempt at sleep for the hour he had left.


End file.
